‘Battle is won, but war is to come’
The battle over Bellway’s huge housing proposal may be won, but the war is not over, councillors have warned.
On Tuesday, committee members voted to refuse the scheme on traffic and road safety concerns, based on KCC’s highways assessment of the scheme. It had objected, arguing the access along Church Road is not suitable and the development would pose hazards to drivers using the narrow country lane. Cllr Clive English, chairman of the planning committee and a member of the policy and resources committee, who voted against the application, said: “I felt we had just enough grounds courtesy of KCC.”
Speaking about the council’s chances of winning at appeal, he said: “It’s going to be one of the hardest ones definitely. But we will defend it vigorously.”
The appeal will be hard, he said, because the site is allocated in 2017 adopted Local Plan, as pointed out by officers.
Cllr Robert Eves, also a member of both committees, said the scheme would have blighted the community, adding: “This was a singular battle in a long war”. The motion to refuse the application was passed with 11 votes for and four against.
Cllr Fay Gooch, whose vote on the motion meant she backed the application, said hers was a “knife edge decision”, eventually swayed by the site’s allocation in the Local Plan.
“I was thinking ‘God no we can’t do this,’ but at the end of the day we have got a local plan and we went through hell to get it. You have to scrape away the emotion and look at the policies. Bellway have put in an application which is legitimate, which complies with policies.”